Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

Sylvia sighed, broke the silence by reaching out and grabbing Freya's wrist, then took off and flew towards the slums.

Li Xianyu paused for a moment, then fished the chicken leg out of the oil, popped it into her mouth, and flew after it.

The two Gold Saints and one Legendary were naturally very fast, and they arrived at the crime scene in just a few minutes. Several bodies were imprisoned in iron cages by Sylvia's magic. Some bodies were bent into bizarre three-fold shapes, twisting and writhing on the ground, while others had cloudy eyes and kept emitting aggressive roars at the living people outside the cages.

Freya asked curiously, "These corpses were given fentanyl for pain relief, right? That's quite normal, isn't it? It's a unique feature of the kingdom's streetscape..."

“No, they didn’t use any drugs.” Sylvia said gravely. “These are the later symptoms… They die within a day of contracting pneumonia and then become these mindless zombies that only know how to scream and attack the living.”

At the moment death disappears, all newly deceased corpses are living corpses, but they can retain the cognition and consciousness they had before death...

The bodies that can die from viral infection are different.

Like berserk demons, they are driven by endless madness and a thirst for human flesh. Any living person scratched or bitten by them will immediately contract the virus, die of a high fever within 24 hours, and then transform into a living corpse of the same kind.

“I’ve dispersed the nearby residents and burned most of the corpses; these few are kept as samples,” Sylvia said in a deep voice. “The most pressing issue right now is whether these mutated zombies only appear in Silvershine City, or whether they appear in other places where the dead gather?”

"If it's only Silvershine City that can be easily solved, we have a magical array and legendary protection, but if it's a global issue..."

Sylvia paused, a look of worry in her eyes: "Those remote small countries, imperial territories, and remote mountain villages with poor transportation, are probably already completely occupied by out-of-control zombies."

…………

The Celestial Realm, a data subspace created by the Amber God, is also known as the "Spirit Realm," a place where all information in the world converges.

At this moment, in the deepest part of the Celestial Realm, three illusory figures sat facing each other.

Since the start of the war, this place has become the meeting place for the leaders of the three kingdoms; now that the deaths have disappeared, the leaders of the three kingdoms meet every three days to discuss solutions.

"To be honest, why don't we use my Hall of Heroes from now on?"

Ji Yushen looked at the data flowing within the Heavenly God Realm and said disdainfully, "I have now become a god. Looking at this space built by Amber God, it is no match for my divine kingdom... I just renovated the Hall of Heroes, at least the environment is more respectable than here."

"Is now the time to be worrying about renovations?" Freya sighed. "Have you found any viruses where you are?"

"We've discovered it, and we've solved it." Ji Yushen waved his hand. "I've ordered all the bodies to be cremated, and we've urgently rolled out a vaccine and sealed off the country. The empire is now safe."

"You've already developed a vaccine?" Freya asked in surprise.

"No, vaccine development takes time, how can it be so fast? It's just a treatment, a placebo," Himeko said honestly. "The main thing is to burn the infected corpses and then rely on our empire's strong organizational power to control the residents and cut off the transmission route."

"Can it really be isolated?" Freya laughed and cried. "According to current research, this zombie virus can be transmitted through droplets, the digestive tract, blood, insect vectors, and rats. Basically, the virus has covered all the ways it can be transmitted. It doesn't seem like a normal mutation."

"Only the Saintess can answer this question, Saintess? Hey, Serafina!"

"Oh my gosh!"

Serafina was startled by the noise and jumped up from her chair. Then she realized that she was still in a meeting, so she coughed twice and said to the two monarchs who ruled the two poles of the world, "Sorry... I was just lost in thought."

"What are you thinking about?" Freya asked with concern.

"No, it's nothing."

You can't exactly say, "I'm thinking about your husband..."

Serafina has also discovered that she has recently been going blind and fainting after seeing things she shouldn't have seen... The problem is that she automatically erases her memories before fainting after fainting, so she can't remember what she saw at all.

Wouldn't that be a complete waste?

Finally, relying on the Pope's dictation and comparing it with the figures who appeared before each of her fainting spells, Serafina finally pinpointed her target—

Queen Freya's husband, Prince Konoma, His Highness Cheng Cheng!

Therefore, I've been thinking about how to bring up Freya's question about her husband...

Lately, I've been having recurring dreams where I'm held in a broad, strong embrace, and when I look up, I vaguely see the face of Prince Konoma... Serafina is starting to wonder if she's been single for a thousand years and has finally fallen in love, but unfortunately, the object of her affections is someone else's husband.

"Hey, Serafina, I'm talking to you, are you daydreaming again?" Ji Yushen patted the dragon throne, her little feet swinging back and forth in anger. "I am a true god! How dare you ignore me like this, it's extremely disrespectful!"

"Did you 'foresee' the true nature of this corpse disaster?" Freya asked.

This time, Serafina finally realized that she couldn't let her mind wander during the meeting. She sighed, closed her eyes, and sensed for a long time before saying, "It's definitely not an ordinary virus... The root of this zombie virus comes from a high-ranking demon—the zombie demon."

"So...this demon's ability is to spread viruses?"

“No, the true form of this demon is the zombie virus,” Serafina said after a moment of thought. “If we cannot eradicate the zombie virus from the entire world, we cannot completely kill it.”

“This strength…is it really just a high-ranking demon?” Freya gritted her teeth. “Thirteen small countries have already fallen completely, and millions of people have turned into zombies. Only a legendary massacre of the country can eradicate the virus…In terms of strength and lethality alone, it has already surpassed many demon lords.”

“…My ability is prophecy, not omniscience. I do not know what is happening in the present or in the past.” Serafina sighed. “I only see that the Demon of Plague will also descend upon the world, and the Zombie Demon is just one of His fingers.”

"As for how to solve it... I have a preliminary suggestion."

Chapter 148, Don't Laugh Challenge

"Ladies and gentlemen, beneath this statue lies the underground city of the theocracy."

Before the colossal golden statue of the Amber God, Serafina bowed to Freya and Himegami, the two rulers who had traveled from afar.

Theocracy.

A pearl atop the mountain, a divinely bestowed fortress, the source of the builders' faith.

Its territory is no more than ten thousand miles, and its population is less than one hundred thousand, yet even the elven empire, protected by the true god and as powerful as the sun, lowers its eyes when it looks from afar.

This is because it was the destiny laid out by the Amber God of the Kingdom before he mended the heavens, and six divine messengers who carried out His will and followed in His footsteps have guarded this place for a thousand years without ceasing.

Their names will surely be sung in the Psalms—Clement III, the "Pope"; Felix, the "Lovers"; Malphite, the "Tower"; Judas, the "Demon"; and Chaos, the "Sun"—

And the "Wheel of Fortune," the prophesied saintess Serafina.

However, now, the throne of the gods is showing signs of wear and tear. The "Sun" hangs in the dome, its radiance bestowing its mercy upon the mortal world; the "Lovers" have been lost for a thousand years, their whereabouts a mystery; the "Demon" has imprisoned himself in a bronze prison... Only the three remaining still follow the footprints carved by the Amber God on the lapis lazuli slab, carrying their burdens forward.

“The sage Malphite of the Tower lies within the abyss of the Holy Kingdom, suppressing a formidable enemy,” Seraphim slowly recounted. “Unlike my authority, the Tower is a tower of knowledge and information, knowing everything from the past to the present… Whether it's the solution to the demon of death or the virus of the zombie demon, perhaps he has a way.”

"So why didn't you go to him in the first place?" Ji Yushen sneered. "I had to make the trip myself."

Freya rolled her eyes: "You didn't have to come, no one asked you... What, is the Empire's zombie virus about to get out of control, and our God is finally panicking?"

Hime Mikami opened her eyes wide and said, "What panic? How can you slander someone's innocence like this..."

"What innocence? My spy witnessed you being thoroughly vilified by Tong Chuxue's 'Memorial on the Throne Regarding the Zombies' on the throne the day before yesterday. Only then did you put down your civil engineering work on building the statue and come to solve the problem."

Ji Yushen's face flushed red, and the veins on his forehead bulged as he argued, "A memorial cannot be considered an insult... A memorial!... How can the emperor's affairs be considered an insult?" He then uttered a series of incomprehensible words, such as "the emperor guards the nation's gate" and "zhe hu," which caused everyone to burst into laughter, filling the air with a joyful atmosphere both inside and outside the country.

"Because the underground city of the theocracy, suppressed by the 'Tower' Sage, is extremely dangerous, no one is allowed to disturb it except in a time of world doom."

Serafina sighed softly and explained, “The dungeons of the Theocracy are different from yours… The Imperial dungeons are 90% complete, each representing one of the nine elemental substances; the Kingdom’s dungeons have a total of 22 levels, each representing one of the 22 paths… But the Theocracy’s dungeons only have four levels.”

"These four layers are: earth, water, wind, and fire, representing the four elements in alchemy, as well as the four fundamental laws of life, death, time, and space, and..."

“Representing the power of the Four Dragon Kings,” Ji Yushen continued, speaking calmly. “The vast majority of dragons in the world live within the Theocracy’s underground city. To a certain extent, the Theocracy’s underground city is already a complete small world. Although it is plagued by demons, it has not fallen into a paradise for demons like other worlds. On the contrary, there are quite a few dragons living there.”

"Your Majesty has conducted quite a bit of research on the Holy Kingdom."

Serafina gave Himegami a deep look, then nodded: "As Your Majesty said, the Theocracy's dungeon has been transformed into a complete small world called the 'Dragon Realm,' where the legendary Four Dragon Kings reside—which is one of the reasons it is dangerous."

"The Four Dragon Kings..."

Freya murmured the word, and Sylvia glanced at her briefly.

"Danger? What could be considered dangerous before me, the only true god in this world?"

Hime no Mikoto didn't care, then glanced at Freya: "Is there no one left in the kingdom? It's one thing for you, Queen, to follow my example and personally lead the expedition, but why didn't you even bring a legendary figure with you, instead bringing a junior Gold Saint?"

Sylvia clenched her fist.

“This is the near-demigod ‘The Hanged Man,’” Freya said. “The Hanged Man’s ritual is to ‘reverse a world-class event,’ and the Theocracy’s dungeon happens to be a small world that can be used to complete the ritual.”

This is precisely why Sylvia joined the search for the "Tower".

Freya's source quality problem is currently only a temporary solution; ultimately, the "Hanged Man" will be needed to resolve it. Meanwhile, in order to deal with the situation of the kingdom's death and disappearance, Sylvia gave the "Overthrow" and "Death" cards to Li Xianyu. With the [Glory] dragon vein left in the capital, he can kill people in the capital in her place.

"In other words... only the four of us went on this mission."

Himeko glanced around and realized that, apart from herself, only Freya was worth considering. Serafina was a complete weakling, and Sylvia was even worse.

It seems these people can't possibly stop my plan...

"Then, let's prepare to open the dungeon!"

…………

The Underground City of the Church, the Realm of Dragons, the Kingdom of Rock and Sky.

Liyue.

This mineral-rich kingdom is ruled by one of the four Dragon Kings, the "King of Earth and Mountains." It is vast, with countless dragon mouths, and its kingdom is located on a seaside port called "Liyue Harbor."

At this moment, in the Seven Stars Palace within Liyue Harbor, a young girl sits atop the highest white jade throne.

She wore a long, gilded dress with rock-patterned patterns, her long, black hair cascading over her shoulders, her eyes sharp and lively—she was none other than the Queen of the Earth and Mountains, guarding this land.

Summer!

Xia Mi slowly opened her arms, her clear voice resounding throughout the entire hall:

"Ready to begin!"

Beneath the main hall, dozens of tall, imposing half-dragons bowed in unison and swiftly and orderly retreated to various parts of the hall's floor. Their fingertips swirled with the power of rock element, their fingers flying across the surface as they used their elemental energy to draw intricate, giant magic circles on the smooth white jade floor.

The crisscrossing runes lit up continuously, and ancient, obscure chants rose and fell:

"Heaven and earth were created in the primordial chaos, the two realms were separated by the mysterious firmament. The spiritual platform guides the star path, the talismanic energy breaks through the void... We dare to face a thousand difficulties, and establish extraordinary feats in ten thousand battles. By the urgent decree of the Rock King Emperor, descend!"

The passionate and devout chanting reached its peak, and the magic circle suddenly burst forth with dazzling golden light, its radiant halo soaring into the sky and tearing apart the silent air within the hall.

Four clearly defined figures slowly descended, landing steadily in the very center of the magic circle—

It was Himegami, Freya, Sylvia, and Serafina who had entered the underground city of the Theocracy!

"This is... the underground city of the Theocracy?"

As the feeling of weightlessness dissipated, the four of them simultaneously looked up, curiously surveying their surroundings and analyzing the situation; only Ji Yushen narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze first sweeping over the half-dragons standing around him, then looking at the throne high above: "Who are you?"

As she finished speaking, Xia Mi leaned forward slightly on the throne: "Welcome to Liyue, four heroes from another world."

Brave?

Wait, didn't we enter the dungeon through the passage under the statue? How did we become heroes from another world?

Xia Mi continued, bowing her head, "Liyue is now in dire straits, surrounded by formidable enemies. We implore the four heroes to lend a helping hand, to help Liyue repel the invaders and overcome this calamity."

"Help you?"

Ji Yushen immediately snorted coldly: "A mere prince dares to sit above me in front of me... Such an impudent person, yet he dares to crave my glory?"

The Liyue guards standing watch beside the palace instantly paled, and stepped forward, spear in hand: "How dare you! This is His Majesty Xia Mi, the King of Earth and Mountains! How dare you be so disrespectful!"